Nunez commutation hearing delayed

A Sacramento County judge announced Tuesday a delay in hearing a controversial challenge to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s surprise decision to shorten the prison sentence handed down to the son of a political ally who was involved in a fatal stabbing near San Diego State University.

Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne Chang was scheduled to take up the state Attorney General’s petition to dismiss the case at a hearing Wednesday morning. She cited the court’s “congested” calendar for the postponement. The new court date is July 11.

Fred and Kathy Santos, parents of a Mesa College student killed in October 2008, are asking the court to reverse Schwarzenegger’s 11th-hour order to shorten by more than half the original prison sentence handed down to Esteban Nunez. He is the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, a Los Angeles Democrat and San Diego native.

Through their attorneys, the Santos family argues that the 2008 voter-approved initiative known as “Marsy’s Law” and incorporated into the constitution requires governor’s to first notify victims or families when pondering a commutation or pardon. They say it spans all post-trial proceedings.

The state Attorney General’s Office charged with defending the former governor counters that nothing in Marsy’s Law suggests that it includes commutations. Overturning Schwarzenegger’s order would overrule time-honored constitutional powers, the state says in court papers.

The attorney general had asked for the case to be dismissed on those grounds.

The legal challenges do not ask that governors be stripped of their authority to issue commutations, but simply to notify families and victims in advance.

Schwarzenegger did not inform the family nor the San Diego County District Attorney’s office before commuting to seven years Nunez’s original sentence.

In a plea bargain admitting to his role, Nunez was originally sentenced to 16 years after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. The brawl occurred after Nunez and friends were turned away from a party on campus.

Schwarzenegger, in a candid interview with Newsweek magazine in April,

revealed that he intervened in part because of his relationship with Fabian Núñez.

“Well, hello! I mean, of course you help a friend,” the magazine quoted Schwarzenegger as saying. Schwarzenegger earlier had also defended his decision by saying Nunez was unfairly given the same sentence as the defendant who delivered the fatal wound.

Meanwhile, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis is pursuing similar legal action there. Separately, legislation is pending in the state Senate that would require those requesting commutations to notify prosecutors when they appeal to a governor for shorter sentences.